NORTH KOREA: U.N. Envoy Says War Is Possible; Security
Council To Meet
http://www.unfoundation.org/unwire/util/display_stories.asp?objid=32999
UN WIRE
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's envoy for North
Korea, Maurice Strong, yesterday called it "entirely
possible" for a war to result from U.S.-North Korean
tensions over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
"I think a war is unnecessary. It is unthinkable in
its consequences, and yet it's entirely possible,"
Strong said in London after visiting the Korean
Peninsula. North Korea's leaders, he added, are
"prepared to go to war if they believe the security
and the integrity of their nation is really
threatened, and they do."
The U.N. Security Council plans to meet Wednesday, a
day before North Korea is to withdraw from the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty, to discuss the crisis. The
United States has been seeking a Security Council
measure condemning North Korea over what Washington
calls a failure to live up to international
obligations involving nuclear nonproliferation.
Strong said the meeting is likely to be contentious.
North Korea said Jan. 12 that it would withdraw from
the treaty, and the International Atomic Energy Agency
referred the matter to the council (Associated Press,
April 3). The council took up the meeting Feb. 19,
then referred it to expert consultations. A deadlock
resulted from U.S.-Chinese differences over how to
deal with North Korea, and current Security Council
President Adolfo Aguilar Zinser this week announced
there would be a meeting next week (Japan Economic
Newswire, April 3).
In related news, North Korea said today that it will
not renounce efforts to develop missiles. Responding
to U.S. sanctions imposed over North Korea's alleged
transfer of missile technology to Pakistan, the
state-run Korean Central News Agency said it is
Pyongyang's "sovereign right to produce, deploy or
export missiles to other countries."
The agency added that North Korea's missile program is
"defensive in nature and poses no threats to any
country that respects our independence" (Jong-Heon
Lee, United Press International, April 4).
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